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Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, just fired off a press release denouncing the religious smear of Harriet Miers.

The anti-religious secularists on the Left are more concerned about keeping abortion-on-demand legal and keeping our society free from religious influence than any other issues. It is what defines them. Imbued with hate, they are already targeting the Christian status of Harriet Miers. And when it comes to hate, few can match the vitriol of Mollie [sic] Ivins, the syndicated columnist from Texas.

Ivins' column so far is only available online at the Salt Lake Tribune:

Miers, like Bush himself, is classic Texas conservative Establishment, with the addition of Christian fundamentalism. What I mean by fundamentalist is one who believes in both biblical inerrancy and salvation by faith alone.

Gasp!

Nevertheless, we are now beset by people who insist on dragging religion into governance - and who themselves believe they are beset by people determined to "drive God from the public square."

This division has been in part created by and certainly aggravated by those seeking political advantage. It is a recipe for an incredibly damaging and serious split in this country and I believe we all need to think long and carefully before doing anything to make it worse.

You'd hope Ivins would have a little more tact than to raise this tired shibboleth. In effect, she's saying those with, as Chuck Schumer would call them, "deeply held religious beliefs" are not welcome in the public square. Christians, only apply if you can check your values at the door. Now who says liberals are more tolerant?

Later thoughts on this: I don't really care what Molly Ivins thinks. If anything, folks on the left smearing Miers for her faith will inspire a sympathetic defense. But this is just the opening shot in a long campaign.

topics:
Religion, Abortion